21-07-2011, 04:36 PM
(This post was last modified: 21-07-2011, 06:20 PM by Peter Lemkin.)
Fox News 'black ops' claim adds to pressure on the Murdoch empire :pinkelephant:
Craig Woodhouse, Political Reporter
Rupert Murdoch's global media empire was plunged further into crisis today amid claims of a "black ops" unit at Fox News and illegal computer hacking by one of the tycoon's US firms.
A former executive at the television news station said a "brain room" carried out "counter intelligence" on channel enemies.
Dan Cooper, who helped launch Fox News as managing editor in 1996, said accessing phone records was "easy pie" for the unit at the station's New York headquarters. The claim came as a legal battle over alleged computer hacking by Murdoch-owned marketing company News America was referred to the FBI and Justice Department by US Democrat senator Frank Lautenberg.
Fox News and News Corporation have both denied the allegations, which pile more pressure onto the Murdoch empire.
Labour MP Chris Bryant said it suggested murky practices were "endemic" across the entire group.
"It looks as if News Corp's standard modus operandi was to resort to the black arts," he said. "The Murdochs can't keep on saying they did not know what was going on in any part of their organisation if it is endemic across the whole organisation."
Mr Cooper first alleged in 2005 that phone records were obtained by a department at Fox News.
Mr Lautenberg said he wanted to make US authorities "fully aware" of the computer hacking case as they investigate claims that 9/11 victims were targeted for phone hacking.
In a case settled in 2009, News America rival Floorgraphics said its system was hacked to poach business.
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'Black ops and espionage' inside Fox News
Jon Swaine
July 21, 2011 - 12:31PM
Rupert Murdoch's Fox News television channel had a "black ops" department that may have illegally hacked private telephone records, a former executive for the station has alleged.
Dan Cooper, who helped launch Fox News as managing editor in 1996, said that a so-called "brain room" carried out "counter intelligence" on the channel's enemies from its New York headquarters, and that he was threatened after it found out he spoke to a reporter.
Another former senior executive told The Telegraph that the channel ran a Soviet-style spying network on staff, reading their emails and making them "feel they were being watched".
Advertisement: Story continues below
'Fair and balanced' ... Controversial Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. A former executive claims hacking may have occurred at the network. Photo: YouTube
The channel, which has come under pressure amid allegations that outlets owned by Mr Murdoch may have attempted to hack the voicemail messages of 9/11 victims, firmly denies all the allegations.
Mr Cooper, who left Fox News soon after its launch, provided a quote for a 1997 article about Roger Ailes, Fox News's president, by journalist David Brock in New York magazine.
The quote was not going to be attributed to him, but he alleges that, before the article was published, Mr Cooper's agent received a telephone call from Mr Ailes threatening to withdraw Fox's business from all his clients.
"There are only two possible ways Ailes found out," Mr Cooper said.
"Either Brock told him or they got hold of Brock's phone records and saw I spoke to him."
He first alleged that the records were obtained by researchers in the "brain room" in 2005 in an article on his website about the launch of the channel.
"Most people thought it was simply the research department of Fox News," he wrote.
"I knew it also housed a counter intelligence and black ops office. So accessing phone records was easy pie."
Mr Cooper yesterday said he helped to design the high-security unit. "It was staffed by 15 researchers and had a guard at the door. No one working there would engage in conversation."
Mr Cooper said he was "willing to consider the possibility" that Mr Brock named him, but added: "I assume he operates under journalistic ethics and protected a confidential source. Brock told me at the time that Ailes told him he would never work again if he wrote the article."
Mr Brock now runs Media Matters, a Left-leaning American media watchdog. A spokesman for the group said: "He declines to comment."
Another former Fox News senior executive, who did not wish to be named, said staff were forced to operate under conditions reminiscent of "Russia at the height of the Soviet era".
"There is a paranoid atmosphere and they feel they are being watched," the former executive said.
"I have no doubt they are spying on emails to ensure no one is leaking to outside media.
"There is a unit of spies that reports up to the boss about who was talking to whom. A lot of people are scared that they're going to get sidelined or even that they're going to get killed."
A Fox News spokesman said: "Each of these allegations is completely false. Dan Cooper was terminated six weeks after the launch of the Fox News Channel in 1996 and has peddled these lies for the past 15 years."
The FBI is investigating allegations that journalists on a British newspaper may have tried to have 9/11 victims' phones hacked.
Both former Fox News executives said they thought Mr Ailes would never have let his reporters do likewise.
The Telegraph, London
-------------------------------
Craig Woodhouse, Political Reporter
Rupert Murdoch's global media empire was plunged further into crisis today amid claims of a "black ops" unit at Fox News and illegal computer hacking by one of the tycoon's US firms.
A former executive at the television news station said a "brain room" carried out "counter intelligence" on channel enemies.
Dan Cooper, who helped launch Fox News as managing editor in 1996, said accessing phone records was "easy pie" for the unit at the station's New York headquarters. The claim came as a legal battle over alleged computer hacking by Murdoch-owned marketing company News America was referred to the FBI and Justice Department by US Democrat senator Frank Lautenberg.
Fox News and News Corporation have both denied the allegations, which pile more pressure onto the Murdoch empire.
Labour MP Chris Bryant said it suggested murky practices were "endemic" across the entire group.
"It looks as if News Corp's standard modus operandi was to resort to the black arts," he said. "The Murdochs can't keep on saying they did not know what was going on in any part of their organisation if it is endemic across the whole organisation."
Mr Cooper first alleged in 2005 that phone records were obtained by a department at Fox News.
Mr Lautenberg said he wanted to make US authorities "fully aware" of the computer hacking case as they investigate claims that 9/11 victims were targeted for phone hacking.
In a case settled in 2009, News America rival Floorgraphics said its system was hacked to poach business.
------------------------------
'Black ops and espionage' inside Fox News
Jon Swaine
July 21, 2011 - 12:31PM
Rupert Murdoch's Fox News television channel had a "black ops" department that may have illegally hacked private telephone records, a former executive for the station has alleged.
Dan Cooper, who helped launch Fox News as managing editor in 1996, said that a so-called "brain room" carried out "counter intelligence" on the channel's enemies from its New York headquarters, and that he was threatened after it found out he spoke to a reporter.
Another former senior executive told The Telegraph that the channel ran a Soviet-style spying network on staff, reading their emails and making them "feel they were being watched".
Advertisement: Story continues below
'Fair and balanced' ... Controversial Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. A former executive claims hacking may have occurred at the network. Photo: YouTube
The channel, which has come under pressure amid allegations that outlets owned by Mr Murdoch may have attempted to hack the voicemail messages of 9/11 victims, firmly denies all the allegations.
Mr Cooper, who left Fox News soon after its launch, provided a quote for a 1997 article about Roger Ailes, Fox News's president, by journalist David Brock in New York magazine.
The quote was not going to be attributed to him, but he alleges that, before the article was published, Mr Cooper's agent received a telephone call from Mr Ailes threatening to withdraw Fox's business from all his clients.
"There are only two possible ways Ailes found out," Mr Cooper said.
"Either Brock told him or they got hold of Brock's phone records and saw I spoke to him."
He first alleged that the records were obtained by researchers in the "brain room" in 2005 in an article on his website about the launch of the channel.
"Most people thought it was simply the research department of Fox News," he wrote.
"I knew it also housed a counter intelligence and black ops office. So accessing phone records was easy pie."
Mr Cooper yesterday said he helped to design the high-security unit. "It was staffed by 15 researchers and had a guard at the door. No one working there would engage in conversation."
Mr Cooper said he was "willing to consider the possibility" that Mr Brock named him, but added: "I assume he operates under journalistic ethics and protected a confidential source. Brock told me at the time that Ailes told him he would never work again if he wrote the article."
Mr Brock now runs Media Matters, a Left-leaning American media watchdog. A spokesman for the group said: "He declines to comment."
Another former Fox News senior executive, who did not wish to be named, said staff were forced to operate under conditions reminiscent of "Russia at the height of the Soviet era".
"There is a paranoid atmosphere and they feel they are being watched," the former executive said.
"I have no doubt they are spying on emails to ensure no one is leaking to outside media.
"There is a unit of spies that reports up to the boss about who was talking to whom. A lot of people are scared that they're going to get sidelined or even that they're going to get killed."
A Fox News spokesman said: "Each of these allegations is completely false. Dan Cooper was terminated six weeks after the launch of the Fox News Channel in 1996 and has peddled these lies for the past 15 years."
The FBI is investigating allegations that journalists on a British newspaper may have tried to have 9/11 victims' phones hacked.
Both former Fox News executives said they thought Mr Ailes would never have let his reporters do likewise.
The Telegraph, London
-------------------------------
Quote:N.B - as I have reason to believe the Murdoch money and impetus came from Shackley and Co. via either Nugan-Hand black drug money and/or Philippine/Japanese Gold in the hands of same, it should be no surprise that not only doing the propaganda work of that 'Cabal' they were inured with using their methodology
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass